Seriously devs - the balance

[Camiie]

I've actually played with Kirschy and Nightfyre before. Been in LSes with them both and done lots of events with Kirschy. No issues with them at all. I don't know the other folks mentioned. I really didn't intend to lump everyone who was truly elite or knowledgeable into a certain category, even if I ended up doing so. I'm really sorry for that, as it wasn't my intention to insult good people.


I do hope that not everything I mentioned is invalidated by my mistake. If so, then I'll just try to make a better argument next time.

[Karbuncle]

Feeling the love in here D:

[Greatguardian]

I've actually played with Kirschy and Nightfyre before. Been in LSes with them both and done lots of events with Kirschy. No issues with them at all. I don't know the other folks mentioned. I really didn't intend to lump everyone who was truly elite or knowledgeable into a certain category, even if I ended up doing so. I'm really sorry for that, as it wasn't my intention to insult good people.


I do hope that not everything I mentioned is invalidated by my mistake. If so, then I'll just try to make a better argument next time.

No, your points stand. I just felt they were misdirected. People like the ones quoted by Crysten above are beyond help, and I recognize at least a couple of names as people who have been laughed off of and/or suspended from BG at least once. These people really aren't elite, though. They're just morons who have/had a decent bot. Equating skill with claim rates has never been anything more than laughable.

Honestly, I'm not really angry at you, and I apologize if I came off harshly. Your post just came off badly when read in conjunction with Hayward's. Hayward is a much better example of the problem I've been addressing. The man can only seem to spew vitriol whenever he posts about elite players or BG posters. It's a chronic problem, especially on these boards, and I was just getting tired of it.

Honestly, I can't and won't stand up for anyone and everyone who did HNMs. There are definitely jerks and jackasses around. But that's just how people are, and it happens at both ends of the spectrum. Thankfully, most of these people end up in the middle rather than at the top. It takes a certain measure of maturity and intelligence to make a skilled player, which typically precludes mouthbreathing retards like the ones Crysten referenced.

Personally, I've always felt that the Einherjar, Nyzul, and Assault drop systems were some of the best in the game. Adding Abjuration drops to Einherjar with unique Odin-only drops, while allowing kings to keep some marginally useful (but not game-breaking or absolutely necessary) items was a wonderful balance. The Ichor and Assault Point systems were nice, and I always hoped they would be expanded upon for those who already had everything they wanted from them.

The biggest problem with point based systems is stagnation. Once I had X, Y, and Z, Ichor became useless to me. Adding valuable consumables and crafting materials to point reward lists would help give people a reason to continue utilizing them after they have the gear that they want.

I wouldn't mind new world spawns, I just don't want them to become the be-all-end-all again. Allowing players to get items faster via world spawns, and slower but claim-free in a battlefield-esque system while maintaining some individuality by including unique but not end-all pieces to each system would be ideal. There are people who just want to go out and get things right now by claiming HNMs, and that's fine. There's just no reason to make that the absolute crux of the game again.

[Byrth]

I wouldn't call someone who can't spell and glorifies his bot an "elite" of anything. Nor would I call myself an elite though. I picked up Dancer specifically to avoid the whole Level 75 Endgame trap. All the job really needed at 75 was a few pieces from Dynamis. I don't dislike noobs. I don't dislike casuals. I dislike idiots. Unfortunately, there are plenty of idiots.

Now that everything is obtainable with a little skill and (sometimes quite a bit of) time, I'm doing fairly well for myself. Pushing the focus off the HNM system is one of the best things this game has ever done, and it's a rare bird who disagrees with that statement regardless of what group you're talking to. In general, I like the direction they have taken the game.

That said, I agree that they're taking the game whatever direction they want without much respect for the substantial quantities of player input they receive. Do I blame them? Not really. The effort SE would have to spend sorting out well-measured and thought out suggestions from the suggestions of idiots is substantial. Then, in our case, the effort they would have to spend translating our suggestions would be substantial. If you guys think they yield to JP suggestions much more than NA suggestions, you'd be wrong. The JPs were just as "wat? where did this come from." about the job FAQs when they came out and blamed us for it the same way we blamed them.

There are two types of things that actually get addressed:
* Bug Reports
* Localization Reports
Everything else is just SE's translated responses that they drop on to whatever thread fits the best. That's fine, I guess, but it means that people waste a lot of time and effort blowing smoke at each other proposing intricate ideas that will never be read, considered, or implemented.

[SpankWustler]

Feeling the love in here D:

You smell funny and you will never succeed in life. Worse yet, these two things are only tangentially related.

That said, I agree that they're taking the game whatever direction they want without much respect for the substantial quantities of player input they receive. Do I blame them? Not really. The effort SE would have to spend sorting out well-measured and thought out suggestions from the suggestions of idiots is substantial. Then, in our case, the effort they would have to spend translating our suggestions would be substantial. If you guys think they yield to JP suggestions much more than NA suggestions, you'd be wrong. The JPs were just as "wat? where did this come from." about the job FAQs when they came out and blamed us for it the same way we blamed them.

I can just imagine what would happen if they translated everything...

"So, what did Camate and Co. have for us this week?"

"To summarize, there were suggestions for improving the Voidwatch item distribution system, some minor and some rather large. In addition to that, there were suggestions about dual-wielding Great Katanas, sixteen vague and nebulous topics about improving Dark Knight (fifteen of which were started by the same person), a fellow named '...Spank...Wustler" suggested we run around the office naked and regularly break apart the copier to drink the toner contained within and a disturbing number of people found it believable, the entire Red Mage sub-forum is a den of fury, sadness, and conflict that every one of our community representatives refuse to...Sir, what are you doing?"

"I am putting on my clothes and having one last dram of White-Out before I leap from the nearest window. Congratulations on your coming promotion!"

[Crysten]

Can I have a hug? :<

[Karbuncle]

Yes. Yes you can

[Crysten]

And they all lived happily ever after <3

[Sparthos]

As someone who devoted alot of time to partly running a big HNMLS, I have mixed feelings regarding where SE has taken the game in the past year or so not because it undercut my "importance" but more because I play XI for the social aspect and that has started to significantly recede with the emphasis on content that can be duoed or trioed rather than things for 6-12man parties.

Marginalizing kings was one of the best things SE did with the game, don't get me wrong. The breath of fresh air that sent the most virulent botters packing along was way past overdue. Yeah, I camped my fair share of all those NMs (making large sums of gil in the process) but the arrogance that came with being the best claimer of a lottery mob had become completely silly and represented the worst this game had to offer.

There was never any challenge in Kings yet so many people equated skill with claims. Fafnir could always be slept, anyone could kite KB till reinforcements arrived and Aspid was stupid easy once you brought the proper number of BLMs. I had more joy beating the Pandemonium Warden than I ever did with Kings because time, skill and organization were all being tested while the only thing a Sandworm or Dark Ixion would frequently do is try my patience.

My main trouble with this game now is that the current systems of loot rewards is Abyssea which has ended for most individuals, Dynamis which is worthless unless you happen to be farming gil or a relic and Voidwatch which doesn't encourage LS play because the drops are terrible to sort out. People aren't going to waste time for marginal upgrades coming off a system where doing a few hours work resulted in huge upgrades and so they have voted with their feet to quit this game until version updates bring news of something worth chasing.

XI is in a good place if you like to play solo or catch up on old, rotting content but the future is bleak with regards to meaningful events being released anytime soon. We get promises of Nyzul II and revamps but what the game needs right now is buzz and life - not more events revolving around logs and ores.

[Alhanelem]

Well it's presumptuous to assume that every event is going to dispense useless garbage, but I agree with the message of your post for the most part. It does seem they've been saving some actually new content for 99, so hopefully this turns out to be more interesting.

For me, with things like Voidwatch, it isn't even the junk drops and low rate of good stuff- there just isn't anything in it that interests me. There are some nice items in it right now, but notihng that's worth the aggravation of the system. Being a dedicated PUP, I was pretty disappointed to find the only special drop for PUP ended up being a piece of trash (new animator) and basically lost any interest in doing the event. Everyone I know, at best, wants one or two items from all ov voidwatch (which consists of a bunch of paths with a bunch of NMs in total- only a couple are of interest to anyone I know)